About the presenters

Diana Laurillard (above left) is Professor of Learning with Digital Technologies at the London Knowledge Lab, Institute of Education, leading externally-funded research projects on (i) developing a learning design support environment for teachers, and (ii) developing software interventions for learners with low numeracy and dyscalculia. This work relates closely to her roles as Assistant Director for Open Mode learning, and as a founder member of the Planning Board for the cross-institutional Centre for Educational Neuroscience (IOE, Birkbeck, UCL). She is joint coordinator for the MSc in Learning Technologies with Birkbeck, and is also involved in consultancies for La Guardia College USA, the Institute of Education Hong Kong, Temasek Polytechnic Singapore. Diana's current roles include: Boards of the Observatory for Borderless HE, Supervisory Council for Fern Universität in Hagen, Governing Board of the UNESCO Institute for IT in Education. She has given many international keynote addresses, published in many academic journals and books, and her book Rethinking University Teaching: A conversational framework for the effective use of learning technologies (2002, RoutledgeFalmer), one of the most widely cited in the field, is now translated into Chinese (ECU Presss, 2011). Her forthcoming book is ‘Teaching as a Design Science: Building Pedagogical Patterns for Learning and Technology’ (Routledge).

Stephen Downes (above right) is a senior researcher for Canada's National Research Council and a leading proponent of the use of online media and services in education. As the author of the widely-read OLDaily online newsletter, Downes has earned international recognition for his leading-edge work in the field of online learning. He developed some of Canada's first online courses at Assiniboine Community College in Brandon, Manitoba. He also built a learning management system from scratch and authored the now-classic "The Future of Online Learning". At the University of Alberta he built a learning and research portal for the municipal sector in that province, Munimall, and another for the Engineering and Geology sector, PEGGAsus. He also pioneered the development of learning objects and was one of the first adopters and developers of RSS content syndication in education. Downes introduced the concept of e-learning 2.0 and with George Siemens developed and defined the concept of Connectivism, using the social network approach to deliver open online courses to three thousand participants over two years. Downes has been offering courses in learning, logic, philosophy both online and off since 1987, has 135 articles published in books, magazines and academic journals, and has presented his unique perspective on learning and technology more than 250 times to audiences in 17 countries on five continents.